The show starts with a cold
open introduction, sometimes with a puppet(s), followed by a
commercial break, then the opening credits. Craig almost always
begins the show (after the first commercial break) by saying
"Welcome to Los Angeles, California. Welcome to The Late Late
Show. I'm your host, TV's Craig Ferguson". He then says to
the camera "Hey! Look at you! Come on in", then begs his
audience to stop applauding. He then usually begins the monologue
by saying, "It's a great day for America, everybody." On
days when an exceptionally negative news story is prominent,
Ferguson will omit the line.

Craig's monologue is informal and largely-improvised[citation
needed] and often spills over into his first
segment following a commercial break. Ferguson reads and responds
to viewer e-mail almost every night. Other segments include
loosely scripted comedy sketches which feature Ferguson in costume
or performing in collaboration with any of a number of
semi-regular guests including performers such as Dave
Foley, Betty
White, Tim
Gunn, Jeffrey
Tambor, Daniel
McVicar, Kristen
Bell, Henry
Winkler, and Tim
Meadows. Occasionally a guest will participate in a sketch,
such as Ewan
McGregor.[1].
Most shows include celebrity interviews and sometimes a musical
guest and or stand-up comedy act. Musical performances are often
taped before the rest of a show.

Ferguson has used many running
gags that span multiple shows and have colorful animated
graphics. These have included themed weeks such as "Crab
Week" and "Shark Week" (though Craig admits that
the show's budget makes most of the themes limited mostly to
graphics), a sound
effects machine installed at his desk (which has been
removed), "Dear Aquaman"
(in which Craig dresses as the superhero and gives advice), and
"Election Fever" during the run-up to the 2008
Presidential election. Another running gag is the "photo
of Paul
McCartney". When McCartney is mentioned in the monologue,
Ferguson will call for a photo of McCartney, which is actually a
photo of actress Angela
Lansbury and vice versa. The show often uses variations of
this gag featuring other pairs of look-alike celebrities.

The show ends with "What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight,
Craig?" where Craig summarizes the lessons of the evening.

Since CBS holds the rights to several major professional
golf tournaments, including The
Masters and the PGA
Championship, along with tennis' US
Open, these events also include 15 minute-long late night
highlights shows hosted by either Jim
Nantz or another CBS
Sports host summarizing the day's action. Previous to
mid-2007, Ferguson's monologue would air as usual, followed by
Ferguson asking viewers to stay tuned for the sports highlight
show (which would air shortly after), followed by the guest and
musical portion of the Late Late Show, splitting an episode
into two separate 10 minute and 45 minute segments. After mid-2007
however, CBS decided to air the sports highlight shows between
Letterman and Ferguson, allowing the Late Late Show to air
its full hour beginning at 12:50am ET/PT on those nights.

Serious monologues

On a few occasions Ferguson's opening monologue has taken on a
serious tone.

On January 30, 2006, Ferguson eulogized his father, who had
died the day before. Ferguson was nominated for his first Emmy
Award for the episode.

On February 19, 2007, Ferguson announced he would do
"no Britney
Spears jokes", saying "comedy should have a
certain amount of joy in it" and that it shouldn't
include "attacking the vulnerable." He references
his 15 years of sobriety
and the struggle he had with addiction,
almost ending in suicide.[2]

On December 8, 2008, Ferguson remembered his mother who
passed away December 1, while his show was on break. Ferguson
did not tell jokes during the monologue. Instead, he told
stories about his mother and how he felt after he had returned
back from his mother's funeral in Scotland. During the
monologue, as he recounted his father's own death nearly three
years prior and spoke of his parents being back together in
death, he became very emotional to the verge of tears and cut
to commercial. Prior to the break, Ferguson mentioned that his
mother wanted the hymn called "Jesus Loves Me" sung
at her funeral because that was the only hymn to which
everyone knew the words. After the break, he showed a clip
from a 2005 interview with his mother and a second clip with
his mother and RZA
from the Wu-Tang
Clan.[4]
Finally, he played his mother's favorite song to end the show,
which was "Rivers of Babylon" by Boney
M.[5]
Ferguson laughed saying, "It's an awful song, but it's
her favorite."

On January 15, 2009, Ferguson complimented the pilot of the US
Airways Flight 1549 and congratulated everybody involved
for their hard work and dedication. He also named the pilot
as a real American hero.

On March 4, 2009, Ferguson dedicated the entire show to his
guest, Archbishop
Desmond Tutu.[6]
The intro and monologue gave a very brief history of South
Africa and apartheid.
There was no musical guest and the only interview was Father
Tutu. This show was during a week of unrest in late night with
Jimmy
Fallon opening his new show after Conan
O'Brien's departure before replacing Jay
Leno. Despite the goings on with other networks and shows,
Ferguson's interview received critical praise from NPR's
TV critic, David Bianculli.[7]

Production milestones

A new set debuted on the July 24, 2006 episode, after the
previous one had been comically destroyed by Bob
Barker and others from The
Price is Right. It included a miniature CBS dirigible that
floats along over the backdrop depicting Los Angeles.

In the week starting with March 17, 2008, The Late Late Show
debuted a new set featuring a desk/interview area on a raised
platform. The backdrop
was also changed to a more realistic and detailed representation
of Los Angeles.

At some point[specify]The Late Late Show began taping musical performances
separately from the rest of the show. For example, the band No
Age were videotaped on October 2, 2008 for an appearance
scheduled to air October 27.[18]
That performance was also the subject of an equal-time
rule controversy in which Randy
Randall was not allowed to wear a pro-Barack
Obama T-shirt. Randall, not wanting to cancel the appearance,
chose instead to turn the T-shirt inside out and write "Free
Health Care" on the shirt with a Sharpie
marker[18]

Impersonations and characters

Impersonations and skit characters frequently done by Ferguson
on the show include Prince
Charles, Sean
Connery, The
Queen, Andy
Rooney, Aquaman,
Michael
Caine ["in Space"] and now [in Spain], and Bono.
He claims that he developed his imitation of Caine after an eight
hour long plane ride, in which he sat behind Caine who
"gabbed" with his wife the entire trip.

Occasionally one of Ferguson's crew members will dress up as
and impersonate him, particularly while he is portraying someone
else in a skit.

Bob Barker

A running gag during the summer of 2006 involved Ferguson going
out of his way to pick on the recently retired CBS game show host Bob
Barker who, Ferguson eventually concluded, was a vampire.

The climax was reached on July 15, 2006, when Bob, flanked by
the rest of The
Price is Right's staff, including announcer Rich
Fields and some of Barker's
Beauties, staged a "surprise" visit. This was the
last show before a long-planned replacement of the set. Although
Barker did not injure Ferguson, he did do some serious damage to
his desk with a single blow. The desk was later totally destroyed
by the models, and Ferguson returned, after the commercial break,
with a card table covered by a checkered picnic
cloth. The episode ended with Ferguson helping the episode's
musical guests, Family
Force 5, completely trash the set.

Barker appeared on his show a few months later, after
announcing his retirement and presented a portrait of himself as a
vampire to Ferguson as a gift.

Make an appointment
and don't worry about
what kind of service
you'll get because it's the best.
I've been going there for at least 5 years.
(Zane Ladhani---owner of Zane's Mall of Comedywww.zanesmall.com )